Portland ponders panhandling problem

A panhandler sits on a downtown Portland sidewalk. Property owner Mark Schlesinger is part of a group looking at ways to limit aggressive panhandling in downtown. The activity, he says, hurts his ability to lease some of the spaces. (Photo by Dan Carter/DJC)

Property owner Mark Schlesinger thought he had an easy sale when he guided officials representing a national clothing retailer on a hunt for downtown space.

But while the officials said they were impressed with the central city’s culture, high traffic and proximity to competitors, they ultimately decided against the move for one reason: panhandlers.

Schlesinger said it wasn’t the first time the problem deterred a business. He realizes a solution must be more considerate than kicking people off the sidewalks, but he also thinks a new strategy to seriously address the issue is long overdue.

“It not only impacts the livability of downtown; it makes it much more difficult for us as property owners to lease out our spaces,” said Schlesinger, a partner with the Schlesinger Cos. “If I’m overly burdened by (local improvement districts) and other taxes that go to social services, I want a place my kids and (I) can feel safe walking.”

Over the years the city of Portland has attempted to pass numerous ordinances aimed at keeping panhandlers and squatters off of downtown sidewalks. All of these ordinances were criticized, threatened with a lawsuit or repealed. But now, a group of business and property owners, including Schlesinger, are looking at new ways to discourage begging.

While the current sidewalk ordinance is better than nothing, Schlesinger said, it just doesn’t have enough teeth for his liking.

People sitting, standing or lying on the streets must be eight feet away from private property lines. But considering the contention with homelessness in Portland, and the sheer amount of people on the street, even that rule is hard to enforce, Schlesinger said.

Schlesinger, chairman of the Portland Business Alliance’s central city public safety committee, is working with committee members, interested property owners and businesses to find a different solution.

The committee’s first idea is a project called the spare change program. The group is supplying retailers with old parking meters to decorate and place near checkout stands. Employees then encourage shoppers to place spare change in meters instead of giving it to panhandlers. The money collected is then donated to P:ear, a local nonprofit that helps homeless and transitional youths between the ages of 15 and 24.

“We hope it helps accomplish two things,” Schlesinger said. “We hope it allows people to give money to help homeless youth and know it’s being used for the right things, and we hope that it makes these kids stop panhandling outside the businesses because no one leaving the stores has change.”

The group decided to team up with P:ear because it believes the majority of the panhandlers are young people. As described by Schlesinger, these panhandlers, who sometimes call themselves road warriors, choose to live the lifestyle and know how to work the system.

“We want to separate the people that need assistance from the people that are abusing it,” he said. “We hope this can help do that.”

Pippa Arend, a cofounder of P:ear, said the help couldn’t come at a better time. The number of youths using the program’s services is at an all-time high – nearly 2,000 participants.

“While recessions don’t usually correlate to how many people we see, it has this time around,” Arend said. “We’ve been doing this a long time and we are seeing a noticeable influx of the teenage age group.”

Schlesinger and the Portland Business Alliance are aware that the spare change program won’t solve the problem. The group is planning to hold a downtown public safety seminar on the topic in early 2011. The seminar will focus on property owner rights and will inform business owners where to direct calls when issues arise.

“This needs to be a collaborative effort, so we are going to bring everyone together to get informed and think of new ideas,” he said. “It’s time for the private sector to step up and get involved.”

Jon Kellogg, a broker with Commercial Realty Advisors Northwest, isn’t sure if these efforts will solve what he sees as a growing problem.

“It’s not as big of an issue with our local tenants because they understand it’s part of the Portland fabric,” Kellogg said. “But it at least comes up on pretty much every tour we ever have with an out-of-town tenant.

“It really does seem to be unique to Portland.”

Schlesinger said the group will look into the possibility of bringing the issue to Salem and lobbying to amend the state constitution so that any new ordinances wouldn’t be overturned.

“We want to deal with this in the most respectful, caring way possible,” Schlesinger said. “But something needs to be done and everyone involved needs to play a role in making it happen.”

Please stay away from PDX if you don’t believe in social services being paid for by businesses that operate in the city core taking space that could be used for high density housing. We are sick of you attracting douches to the downtown, stay out! Build out in Lake Oswego if you want a police force that will crack a few homeless people’s skulls.

I hear Texas shoots panhandles and Iran chops off their hands, try there, buy a one way ticket please. I’ll pay.

Rarian:
You clearly don’t run a business downtown (or probably anywhere else for that matter).

I own a small retail shop and the constant panhandling, not to mention store theft, is a constant drain on our modest business resources. I AM the local small business that people like you claim to value in Portland, but I am told I am a “douchebag” because I have legitimate concerns about safety and livability? My business employs four Portlanders at a time when jobs are scarce. I pay WELL ABOVE minimum wage. What exactly do you think will happen to these jobs if the current situation downtown continues?

I have invested my own savings and time in a downtown business, and pay taxes on all of it. What exactly do you do?

It is interesting to read that a national chain made a decision based upon the presence of panhandling downtown. One must have serious reservations about the veracity of that claim.

The problem is not unique to Portland, but the absence of a solution is unique to PDX. I lived in Berkeley where the real panhandlers, not the problem ones in Portland, would come into the restaurants and coffee houses asking for money. Of course, being a liberal community dollars were readily handed over.

I submit that panhandling in cities the size of Portland and larger have similar panhandling problems. Many are in states that do not have as protective constitutional rights as Oregon. But the real issue is found in the definition of panhandlers.

In all of the news media reports about panhandling, the issues have pointed to a very small group of street thugs that have operated without the fear of the police. The PBA’s fake cops have done little to ameliorate the lawlessness of this few.

Court decisions have made it clear that state laws are sufficient to rid the streets of these street thugs. The city’s own sting operations have proved successful, but they are never carried out to the fullest extent, thus applying only temporary pressure.

This is a policing problem pure and simple – PBA is not in the position to solve it. The parking meter trick has been done and was not successful. There used to be one in the PDC lobby – I wonder how much money that collected?

There is an implication that this is some kind of homeless problem where in fact there is no connection, except in the mind of PBA, between these problem “panhandlers” and the homeless.

City police patrolling the area as a beat would discourage the thugs and lessen, if not eliminate, the intimidation factor.

The PBA just doesn’t have the skill set to analyze the problem and determine solutions. They have failed every step of the way. If you don’t know the problem – you don’t have the solution.

The city needs to educate the public in a very clear way what happens when you hand someone change on the street instead of donating it to a charity. I appreciate that people are generous in Portland, and this sounds insensitive and a generalization of what panhandlers do with with this money but I can’t help but feel it just enables their situation.

It seems to me that this is the #1 problem. People should always be generous to the poor, but money needs to be given to organizations that can use it to help people in the most productive way. I recall a similar campaign in NYC with signage on the subways years ago making this point.

I travel often and have found Portland to have the highest number of panhandlers and bums at freeway exits of any city in the western states. Far more than places like Reno, Sacramento, Boise or even San Francisco.
Of course, it doesn’t help when you have a City Council run by progressive schmucks that can’t even balanace a checkbook or enforce laws already on the books.